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At All Costs
At All Costs is the eleventh book of David Weber's series of novels and short stories chronicling the adventures of Honor Harrington. It was first published in 2005. Timeframe: 1920 PD – 1921 PD Summary :The war with the Republic of Haven has resumed ... disastrously for the Star Kingdom of Manticore. Admiral Lady Dame Honor Harrington, Steadholder and Duchess Harrington, the single victorious Allied commander of the opening phase of the new war, has been recalled from the Sidemore System to command Eighth Fleet. Everyone knows Eighth Fleet is the Alliance's primary offensive command, which makes it the natural assignment for the woman the media calls "the Salamander." :But what most of the public DOESN'T know is that not only are the Star Kingdom and its Allies badly outnumbered by the Republic's new fleet, but that the odds are going to get steadily worse. Eighth Fleet's job is to somehow prevent those odds from crushing the Alliance before the Star Kingdom can regain its strategic balance. It's a job which won't be done cheaply. Honor Harrington must meet her formidable responsibilities with inferior forces even as she copes with tumultuous changes in her personal and public life. :The alternative to victory is total defeat, yet this time the COST of victory will be agonizingly high. Plot Due to the actions of the High Ridge government, which led to a successful attack on key Manticoran Alliance shipyards by the Republic of Haven, the Star Kingdom of Manticore finds itself decidedly on the short end of the strategic balance between the two warring star nations. Admiral Honor Harrington is placed in command of Eighth Fleet, the Alliance's primary offensive force, which is the sole heavy formation available for operations against Haven. Queen Elizabeth III and her senior advisors project it will be at least two T-years before they can expect any significant numbers of new construction to begin bolstering their thin wall of battle; this while Haven's progress under Thomas Theisman and Shannon Foraker is giving them an even larger force advantage, and smaller technological disparity. Strategically, the goal of Eighth Fleet is to instill enough operational caution and sensitivity to losses within Haven to force redeployments; this would have the desperately needed effect of reducing the available number of ships of the wall Haven would then be able to concentrate for offensive action against the Star Kingdom and its allies. Despite the grave circumstances, the Star Kingdom finds itself spread dangerously thin against its security commitments. Meanwhile, Harrington Steading, and all of the Protectorate of Grayson, mourn the loss of Howard Clinkscales, former General of the Protectorate Security Detachment and Regent of the Steadholders Harrington. Even though he died peacefully after what Graysons would consider a long life, Honor is very dismayed by his death, especially since it makes her realize how many of her Grayson-born friends who never received prolong she will lose in the years to come. To show Howard's family how much she values their support, she creates a blood bond between the Harrington Clan and the Clinkscales Clan, binding the fates of the two families together for all time. Honor continues to work closely with Hamish Alexander, now First Lord of the Admiralty, on the military and political challenges facing the Alliance. Their professional respect for each others' abilities, and their need for mutual support as they navigate the precarious political landscape in the Star Kingdom, has led them into the very romantic embrace the High Ridge government tried to insinuate years earlier. While this is not the dire political crisis it was during the prior government, it still offers numerous personal and professional difficulties for them. Unfortunately, they find themselves trapped between their emotions and their responsibilities. Things get even more complicated when Honor gets pregnant because her contraceptive implant was not renewed in time. The solution comes from an unsuspected side: Lady Emily Alexander, Hamish's paralyzed wife, who has supported the relationship for some time, convinces her husband to marry Honor, forming a polygamous marriage as is common on Grayson, Honor's second homeworld. Eventually, Raoul Alexander-Harrington, legitimate son of Honor, Hamish, and Emily Alexander-Harrington is born. Honor's Eighth Fleet is defeated by Admiral Javier Giscard in the Battle of Solon. Michelle Henke is taken a prisoner of war by Haven, but is returned to Manticore with an invitation to peace talks. Manticore agrees to a temporary cease-fire, but the mysterious Mesan Alignment intervenes, trying to kill a number of Alliance officials, as well as Queen Berry of the newly founded Kingdom of Torch. Convinced that Haven is responsible, a furious Queen Elizabeth III orders Eighth Fleet to resume the fighting, and Honor can soon score a decisive victory in the Battle of Lovat. Admiral Giscard is killed in this engagement, to the great dismay of his lover, Havenite President Eloise Pritchart. Upon her return to Manticore, Honor learns that Katherine Alexander-Harrington, the biological child of Emily and Hamish, has just been born. She rushes to see her daughter, even dismissing a request for an immediate meeting with the Queen. When President Pritchart orders two Havenite fleets to attack the Star Kingdom's home system, the Second Havenite-Manticoran War climaxes in the largest space battle in the history of the human race, the Battle of Manticore. Thousands of ships are destroyed, and over two million people lose their lives, including Honor's beloved friend and colleague Alistair McKeon. Yet Manticore prevails, and both sides are left without significant offensive capabilities for the time being. Background The final scene from the spin-off novel The Shadow of Saganami is included in the book, showing the return of [[HMS Hexapuma|HMS Hexapuma]] and [[HMS Warlock (CA-277)|HMS Warlock]] from the Talbott Cluster, this time from the perspective of Sebastian D'Orville. References Characters Boniface Abercrombie | Danielle Abrioux | Hamish Alexander | Emily Alexander | William Alexander | Gammal al-Bakr |William Anders | Aldona Anisimovna | Clarissa Arbuckle | Ariel | Joshua Atkins | Ayrault | Morris Baez | Sally Banacek | Banshee | Isabel Bardasano | Henrietta Barloi | Edouard Bascou | Everette Beach | Heinrich Beauchamp | Camille Begin | Diana Bellefeuille | Jennifer Bellefeuille | Matthew Bellefeuille | Russell Bellefeuille | Charles Bibeau | Luke Blackett | Jessup Blaine | Joel Blumenthal | Franklin Bradshaw | Winston Bradshaw | Antonio Braga | Amanda Brankovski | Harper Brantley | Baptiste Bressand | Mercedes Brigham | Everard Broughton | Arnold Bruckheimer | Victor Cachat | Thomas Caparelli | Rafe Cardones | Desiree Carmouche | Jeff Carter | Veronika Chernitskaya | Mitchell Clapp | Genevieve Chin | Austen Clinkscales | Bethany Clinkscales | Constance Clinkscales | Carson Clinkscales | Howard Clinkscales | Rebecca Clinkscales | Lucien Cortez | Gunther Daniels | Esmeralda Dante | Stuart Davidson | Ivan deCastro | Travis DeClercq | Molly DeLaney | Matthew DePaul | Albrecht Detweiler | Evelina Detweiler | Emile Deutscher | Oliver Diamato | Sebastian D'Orville | Adam Dryslar | W.E.B. Du Havel | Tabitha DuPuy | Alexis Durand | Harold Duval | Anita Eisenberg | Havard Ellefsen | Queen Elizabeth III | Leonardo Ericsson | Bridget Estwicke | Charise Fanaafi | Farragut | Harper S. Ferry | Shannon Foraker | Janet Frazier | Hal Fredericks | Genghis | Arnold Giancola | Jason Giancola | Sybil Gilraven | Alessandra Giovanni | Javier Giscard | Patricia Givens | Betty Gohr | Angelo Goldbach | Craig Goodrick | Marius Gozzi | Stan Gregory | Stephania Grimm | Yves Grosclaude | Liam Guernicke | Emperor Gustav XI | Claudette Guyard | Madelyn Gwynett | Alicia Hampton | Bradley Hampton | Franklin Hanover | Rachel Hanriot | Emily Harcourt | Horace Harkness | Alfred Harrington | Allison Chou Harrington | Clarissa Harrington | Faith Harrington | Honor Harrington | James Harrington | Thomasina Hartnett | Lyou-yung Hasselberg | Josephus Hastings | Nico Havenhurst | Thurston Havlicek | Spencer Hawke | Solomon Hayes | Bryant Hellerstein | Sonja Hemphill | Michelle Henke | Coleman Hennessy | Eric Hertz | Hipper | Frances Hirshfield | Celestine Houellebecq | Arakel Hovanian | Franz Illescue | Sandra Inchman | Julia Isher | Andrea Jaruwalski | Armand Joubert | Franz Jourdain | James Julian | Albert Kaminski | Janice Kent | Theophile Kgari | Henry Kleinman | Martijn Knippschd | Cyrus Kochkarian | Ludwig Krenckel | Theodosia Kuzak | Renzo Kyprianou | Axel Lacroix | Andrew LaFollet | Jennifer LaFollet | Miranda LaFollet | Jordan Lamar | Hector Lapierre | Lara | Judson Latrell | Giuseppe Lauder | Ekaterina Lazarevna | Denis LePic | Mathilde le Vern | Victor Lewis | Allen Lorenzetti | Peter Lowell | Justin Loyola | James MacGuiness | Ewan MacNaughton | Irving Mandel | Oliver Manfredi | Allen Mannock | Arnaud Marquette | Astrid Martinsen | Georgina Mathieson | Hirotaka Matsuzawa | Alexandra Mayhew | Arabella Mayhew | Benjamin Mayhew IX | Bernard Mayhew | Elaine Mayhew | Honor Mayhew | Jeanette Mayhew | Katherine Mayhew | Lawrence Mayhew | Rachel Mayhew | Teresa Mayhew | Jefferson McClure | Clifford McGraw | Alan McGwire | Jackson McGwire | Alistair McKeon | Timothy Meares | Tajman Meyers | Diego Mikhailov | Samuel Miklos | Tom Milligan | Monroe | Irene Montague | Catherine Montaigne | Leslie Montreau | Kenneth Moore | Mary Lou Moreau | Allen Morowitz | Richenda Morrison | Bin-hewi Morser | Travis Mueller | Samuel Mueller | Tony Nesbitt | Jean-Claude Nesbitt | Harriet Neukirch | Petra Nielsen | Nimitz | Harold O'Dell | Jerome O'Donnell | Jessica Orbach | Roslee Orndorff | Frederick Ormskirk | Michael Oversteegen | Evelyn Padgorny | Thandi Palane | Jayne Pattison | Lindsey Phillips | Joona Poykkonen | Eloise Pritchart | Myron Randall | Hwa-zhyou Reinke | Patrick Reumann | George Reynolds | Jack Rothschild | Nicodeme Sabourin | Samantha | Walter Sanderson | Jerome Sandusky | Mark Sarnow | Morton Schneider | Margaret Sebastian | Hen-zhi Seifert | James Sharif | Lavarenti Shelburne | Chester Shelton | Janos Simon | Jean Simon | Alekan Slowacki | Alice Smirnoff | Gena Smith | Gerald Smithson | Henry Snyder | Andrianna Spiropoulo | John Stackpole | Janine Stanfield | Jethro Stanton | Sandra Staunton | Astrid Steen | Tobias Stimson | Ellen Stokely | Jeremiah Sullivan | Serena Taverner | Jasper Taylor | Robert Telmachi | Jeremiah Tennard | Alvin Thackeray | Selma Thackery | Barnaby Thackston | Thomas Theisman | Sheila Thiessen | Melinda Thomas | Glenn Thompson | Sandra Thurston | Jane Timmons | Andreas Torricelli | Anton Toscarelli | Lester Tourville | Wilhelm Trajan | Prescott Tremaine | Linda Trenis | Alice Truman | George Tucker | Angelina Turner | William Tyler | Kevin Usher | Elfrieda VanGuyles | Judson Van Hale | Syou-tung Waldberg | Diego Watson | James Webster | Jerome Weissmuller | Fred West | Sherwin Willoughby | Ruth Winton | Sigismund Witcinski | Tswei-yun Wollenhaupt | Jeremy X | Saburo X | Anton Zilwicki | Queen Berry I Zilwicki | Robert Zucker | Justin Zyrr-Winton Starships * [[HMLAC Dacoit|HMLAC Dacoit]] * [[HMS Hexapuma|HMS Hexapuma]] * [[HMS Imperator|HMS Imperator]] * [[HMS Mandrake|HMS Mandrake]] * [[HMS Sprite|HMS Sprite]] * [[HMS Succubus|HMS Succubus]] * [[RHNS Sovereign of Space|RHNS Sovereign of Space]] * [[HMS Venturer|HMS Venturer]] * [[HMS Warlock (CA-277)|HMS Warlock]] Stations * [[HMSS Hephaestus|HMSS Hephaestus]] * [[HMSS Vulcan|HMSS Vulcan]] Planets *Enki *Grayson *Haven *Manticore *Mesa *Sphinx *Torch Nations *Anderman Empire *Protectorate of Grayson *Republic of Haven *Star Kingdom of Manticore *Solarian League *Kingdom of Torch Other Broughton and Stemwinder | Contraceptive implant | David and the Phoenix | Death and state funeral of Howard Clinkscales | Hallman System | Harrington Garden | Solon System | Battle of Solon | ''Steadholder Denevski''-class | tubing External links * ''At All Costs'' on Wikipedia Category:Honorverse material